Pretty pictures

Last weekend Barb and I went to California for Stanford’s Parents Weekend. It is Barb’s daughter, Maddy, who is attending there and I was mostly along for support such as carrying heavy objects, navigation, and donating excess heat to Barb as needed. It was colder than we expected and we even had rain. I’m not really complaining about it. Mostly just trying to rub it in a bit to others. While others were dealing with snow and cold we went for a walk on the beach.

When not performing my normal duties I took pictures. We drove to Venice Beach and hiked a little more than 1.5 miles south were some of the prettier ones were taken. Some other time I’ll post pictures of the two mile long particle accelerator we toured.

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As shown by the unruly hair it was a little windy.

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It was a little bit cold. We only saw three women in bikinis and I only saw one of them get into the water. While we were glad we brought coats and long sleeve shirts for a time it was comfortable with short sleeved shirts.

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We saw a group of about 15 or 20 people on horseback. I’ve never ridden horse on a beach before. I might like to try it sometime. But it probably would have to be without Barb. She doesn’t care for riding horses.

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This is probably a radar station but I preferred to think of it as a giant golf ball on a tee.

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There were a fairly large number of seagulls and I was a bit concerned they were on “bombing runs” sometimes when they flew over but they were actually well behaved.

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I took this one with my phone. I wish I had used my SLR. With a longer focal length Barb would not have been so distorted in size compared to Maddy and the higher resolution would have made it something I would have cropped a little bit, printed, framed, and hung on the wall.

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This is probably my favorite. The dramatic clouds. The active ocean. The disappearing tire track. Even the seagulls in the distance really appeal to me.

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13 thoughts on “Pretty pictures

  1. Sending a kid to college in CA is a great way to turn them into a raving leftist lune, if they are not already, unless they are unusually well-grounded in logic, rhetoric, and history. I wish her the best, but I’ve heard far to many stories of sending off a good kid and getting a shrieking harpy back.

    • Not always. Consider Fox commentator Greg Gutfeld, who is a libertarian-leaning conservative and an alumnus of Berkeley. So while some people come away brainwashed, others come away with a clearer understanding of the nature of the enemy.

    • Three points. 1) No one “sends” Maddy anywhere. The best you can do is offer suggestions. 2) This is Stanford not Berkley. While there Barb and I attended a “class” by one of her professors. It was “How to feed nine billion people” (description here). I expected to hear the usual leftist buzzwords. Other than “climate change” I was very pleasantly surprised with what he had to say. He totally blew away the “local food” premises. He didn’t say it but I suspect the title of the class was in response to How to feed 8 billion people. 3) Maddy is very strong in math and the sciences. She is studying “Earth Systems” not “gender inequality” or political science.

    • Really, Rolf? A shrieking harpy? You believe permitting your child to attend the university in the United States with the lowest admission rate will turn her into a shrieking harpy? “Permitting” being used loosely here, because she will always think for herself.

      The rigor of Stanford University, both while attending and to be admitted is intense. To emerge with a Bachelors of Science, or even a Masters by senior year (as she will) shows a strong grounding in education, current research, determination, and outstanding staff. Go find your shrieking harpy elsewhere.

      • I’ll bet he says the same things about Caltech grads too…. 😉

      • Just the standard words of caution, not a prediction or anything; apologies if that was how it came across. I’ve never met Maddy, nor do I know anything about her, but I’ve heard to many stories of late out of colleges and liberal states to not toss out that warning flag on general principles. Forewarned is forearmed and all that.
        Weird things can happen when kids get away from home – many tales of kids changing dramatically. From what Joe said above, it sounds like the odds are with her rather than against her. Going for a science-related program some of the normal social pressures will not be there, but others likely will be more intense. Best of luck on all accounts in any case.

  2. “As shown by the unruly hair it was a little windy.”

    And here I thought that when I loaded the images it would show Joe and his unruly hair.

  3. Rolf,
    I sent my daughter to a Liberal Catholic All Girl High School and the to San Ftansisco State (loony left central). I am proud to say she saw through all the BS and has become even more conservative than me. Why did I do this? I thought she needed to develop more compasion for people less fortunate than us as she was quite self centered.
    I think she has developed into a strong libertarian, but with solid fiscal conservative principles.

    • Excellent outcome. And, with a bit of preparation it obviously is possible. Not all kids are ready for that, but I’m glad to hear that’s the way it worked out.

  4. Joe, did you drive all the way from Stanford to LA to go to Venice Beach? Long road trip.

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